Phrases and Names, Their Origins and Meanings

by Trench H. Johnson

Pothooks. The nickname of the 77th Foot, owing to the fancied resemblance of these two figures to pothooks.

Pot Luck. Anything ready at hand for a meal. The allusion is to the primitive stock pot, into which meat and vegetables were thrown at any time for boiling up as required.

Potomac. Indian for “place of the burning pine.”

Poultry. Where the scorchers and stuffers of poultry in connection with the old Stocks Market on the site of the Mansion House had their shops.

Pouter Pigeon. So called on account of its pouting or bulging breast.

Powis Place. Marks the site of the town house of William Herbert, Marquis of Powis, temp. Charles I.

Prairie State. Illinois, which for the most part consists of prairie lands.

Praise-God Barebone. A fanatical leader of the time of the Commonwealth, and a prominent member of the “Barebone Parliament,” who was addicted to praising God and damning his neighbours. This kind of hypocrisy was characteristic of the Puritans.

Pratt Street. After one of the family names of the Earl of Brecknock, Marquis of Camden, landlord of the estate.

Presbyterians. From the Greek presbuteros, an elder. The National Church of Scotland is governed not by prelates, as in England, but by elders, equal in office and power.